I'm just a girl who loves to eat good food! I travel Nashville with a group of other foodies trying new restaurants and repeating old favorites.
I generally lean toward the ethnic, but as long as it's good food, then sign me up!

Sunday, February 23, 2014

It was an awesome day! I met up with three friends at "Our Kids Soup Sunday" at LP
Field Club level. I have been going to this event for about four years now (mark
your calendars for every February), but this was actually their 20th
year hosting this event. I received an email from one of the Board of Directors
and she sent me a free “media pass” for me and my friend, Vivek. Therefore, I
feel an obligation to blog about my experience in hopes that it will encourage
you to contribute to the cause or attend future events.

Our Kids Center is a Nashville-based
charity who’s mission is to: provide expert medical evaluations and crisis
counseling services in response to concerns of child sexual abuse, and to
increase community awareness, conduct research and offer education and training
about child maltreatment. They have locations in 5 cities throughout
Tennessee to help children & families coping with the ramifications of childhood
sexual abuse.

The cost of the annual event is $20 for singles
and $40 for the family pack (two adults plus kids). If you wait to purchase
your tickets at the door, the price increases by $5 for each ticket type. Every
year celebrity judges and culinary judges rate the soups. Celebrity judges have
included actors from the show “Nashville”
as well as sports celebrities including the Tennessee Titans and the newest
Vanderbilt coach. Culinary judges include food critics and well known Nashville
chefs.

Fifty plus (50+) locally owned Nashville area
restaurants & catering companies provide samplings (about 1 oz each) of
their best soups for you to try – although they will gladly have you take more
than one. This is an all you can eat event – so I challenge you to get through
50+ ounces of soup and go back for 2nds (that’s 6.25 cups of soup). Bread is
also provided at each table along with free sodas and water (stations located
throughout the event).

Our Kids provides you with a small tray that will hold about 12 samples. If you’re
good at balancing, maybe more, me not so much, I almost had a couple disasters
on my hands. If you purchase the “Family Pack” you get a larger cafeteria tray.
With the small tray, I made a total of four trips. I missed out on a few since
they were sold out before I got there. By the end, I was taking only a sip or
two of each.

We tasted some very creative soups and one that I really wanted to spit out
(surprisingly it was created by a very high end, reputable restaurant) - no
names mentioned other than it contained beer & cheese. I’m not averse to
beer-cheese soups but a couple friends agreed with me on this. Sometimes you
have to wonder if they follow the chef's code of "taste, taste, taste your
food before you serve it".

Soups: The Girl Scouts served up a "Chocolate
Mint Bisque" (basically a Thin Mint cookie soup). How do you say no to a
little Girl Scout who asks you to try her soup? Actually, the soup was made by Lorraine's at the Marriott in Franklin.
Shockingly it was actually very good. Vivek mentioned as we stood in line that
he hated chocolate and mint together, but admitted after trying that it was “actually
pretty good”. Not so much a soup as a dessert. Vandy Campus Dining won the
People's Choice first place with their "Princess Peach Shortcake
Soup" - again VERY good but more like a smoothie (very refreshing and a
palate cleanser).

My personal savory favorite
was Taqueria del Sol's "Shrimp
Corn Chowder" which won first place from the celebrity and culinary
judges. It is on their menu at their 12 South location. They were closely
followed as my favorite by Corner Market Catering with their "Curried Yellow Squash Soup".

Antionio’s of Nashville won second place “creative dish” from the judges as
well as third place in the “People’s choice” with their “Shrimp & Cognac Bisque”.
This was also a favorite of mine.

I wish I could mention every soup individually but it would take me more space
than I am allowed. My favorites are listed above. If you attended the event,
please post your comments regarding your favorite soup.

The highlight of
the day is my friend, Vivek, gave me a Canon PowerShot S5 IS as an early
birthday present. Sorry I don't have any pics to share yet. I need to download
the software and get a matching USB cable to sync them up - hopefully I will
get that this week. Once I figure it out, I will have no excuse not to create some
amazing pictures of the foods we eat around Nashville.

Saturday, February 22, 2014

This is the food I
grew up eating as a kid, from the age of 6 YO until college. The
"perks" when your childhood best friend is Korean. I spent 3-4 nights
a week in the kitchen of my surrogate mom, Ok Cha Kim. When she would hand me
food and I asked what it was she would say “just eat” and I did. I never
questioned Momma Kim because I knew I could be kicked out of her kitchen at any
given time. She was the Korean “Gordon Ramsey”.

Thanks to Momma Kim, I knew what sushi was by the time I was 8 years old,
chewed on dried octopus, ate raw stingray and became a kimchi aficionado. Her
cucumber kimchi was so amazing that I attempted it for years without success. She
taught me how to eat with chopsticks and even gave me my first official pair of
chopsticks (not the wooden pull apart kind) and I practiced on cheap ramen
noodles.

I have been eating at Hai Woon Dai
(pronounced “Hay Woon Day”) for about 7-8 years, before I even conceived of my
Meetup group, What the Pho!

The food is above reproach, the service fast and exceptional. THE BEST KOREAN
in Nashville! I will stake my reputation on that. Assuming “Jean” is working
when you visit, mention my name. You won’t get any freebies but I’m sure she
will give you extra TLC.

Banchan: First there’s the banchan,
small plates of condiments which include kimchi, cucumber kimchi, fish cake,
seaweed salad, etc, etc. These are free and are replenished when you run out.

Banchan (photo courtesy of Sun Tzu Photos, James Quach)

Appetizers: I would highly recommend the “gyoza” which is vegetarian. I had
never ordered until recently because I expected them to be like Japanese gyoza
which I can take or leave. A Persian friend ordered them a few weeks ago and
shared, I fell in love. Had the menu said “Yaki Mandu” I would have known what
I was ordering. It’s like a little “empanda”. This is a staple on my visits
now.

Dolsot Bibimbap (photo courtesy of Sun TzuPhotos, James Quach)

The “Seafood Pancake”, I’m not a fan of squid (for dietary reasons) but this one is
outrageously popular. It is HUGE and should be shared with about 8 people,
unless you plan to make it your primary meal.

Entrées: The (BBQ) chicken bulgogi is
some of the most tender chicken I've ever tasted. I also love the beef bulgogi
which is thinly sliced and tender. I haven’t tried the pork version which my friend Pam
swears by.

And bibimbap, this is a staple, it includes rice, beef, veggies and a fried egg. Order the dolsot bibimbap for the hot stone pot experience. Think of it as fried rice to the n'th degree.This brings back memories.

I am also a fan of the Japchae
(sweet potato noodles stir fried in sesame oil with vegetables and beef), ask
them to cut the noodles or you might be in for the fight of your life.

Japchae (photo courtesy of Sun Tzu Photos, James Quach)

One of my go to favorites is their “jjigae” which are their soups delivered at a rolling boil
in a hot pot. They have several variations with seafood, meat and tofu. They
are presented with a raw egg. As soon as the soup arrives, crack the egg and
stir. Jjigae is one of my comfort foods when I’m sad or happy. Momma Kim never made me jjigae.
But I ate a lot of bulgogi growing up and it was amazing.

Desserts: None offered. But you will
be stuffed before you can finish all of the above. I don’t remember ever having
desserts in Kim’s house.

Saturday, February 8, 2014

The girls and I had an amazing
dinner tonight at the new Lebanese Bistro on 12 South in Nashville, appropriately namedEpice(French for "Spice") just a couple weeks after their opening. All I can say Maher Fawaz is "Well done sir, well
done". Maher (the owner) stopped at our table a couple times to see how
everything was. The host followed us out after dinner to ask "Who is Rose?” Yes, I'm
the one who called you three times to change the # of attendees. We chatted for a bit and he thanked us for coming. I can honestly say in my 20 years in Nashville and out of the 100's (or rather 1000's) of restaurants I have tried in Nashville, around the country and world-wide - this is one of my favorites by far. Normally, I cringe at the idea of $40-$50 for a meal (no drinks included). But Epice was worth every penny I spent, and then some. Not a single regret - except I wish I could have eaten more.Our server was very knowledgeable and beautiful - the spitting image of Zooey Deschanel. The appetizers came quickly. We ordered the Tabouleh, Al-Raheb (roasted eggplant purée), Fatayer (a trio of stuffed pies) and Sfeeha (flat bread with cured beef & cheese).

Now for entrees: Jie & I ordered the Sayadeya
(cumin dusted barramundi with caramelized onions) - this was absolutely
AMAZING. The fish was so tender you could hardly get it on a fork. Jie
completely cleaned her plate and took a picture to prove it. Hope &
Jennifer ordered the Tawook (marinated chicken brochette). Mary had the Epice Salad
with the marinated chicken. Donna ordered the Batinjan (roasted eggplant with
ground sirloin) and Cynthia had the Beyrouti (chickpea purée with ground
sirloin and pine nuts).

For dessert: The seven of us split the Pots de crème, Katayef
(Lebanese crepes) and Sfouf (Lebanese yellow cake). The desserts were perfect,
not overly sweet. I loved the fresh fruit served with each dessert - and oh,
the fig. Loved the fig!

About Me

I am Rose! Since mid-2008, I have been the organizer of an ethnic dining Meetup called "What the Pho!"
I have been under constant pressure from friends and Meetup members for a while to start my own official blog because according to them, I have technically been blogging for years on Meetup and on my Facebook pages (both personal and "What the Pho!")
I hope my blog inspires you to eat great food and try new places you would never have considered going.
If you want to join us on our journey, you can find us at: http://www.meetup.com/What-the-Pho/